ComTeam Trainee Cornelius Speck in an Interview

Cornelius, welcome at ComTeam! Since the beginning of March 2007 you are here as a trainee. Where do you come from and how long will you be staying with us?
I live in Munic and I am studying social education. The trainee time will be 10 months and it will end in December 2007.

What did you do so far?
I have completed my training as an educator and I have worked with handicapped people, with teenagers and children. During my time when I was doing community service as alternative to military service, I worked in a remedial school. The experience was, that I really had an important task for those people, and this motivated me to orient myself towards a social profession. The goals have not changed until now, only the areas of my activities have.

What was your motivation to come to ComTeam as a trainee?
It was the good reputation of ComTeam, the really open-minded colleagues, the feeling of being welcome and the good food. I am qualified as an out-door educator in water and this brought me closer to my goal of working with groups. But what really opened my mind for it were my studies. Subjects like communication, group -dynamics, role-play, reflecting behaviour, feedback and conversation abilities, all this will be helpful during my time here.

What are your tasks?
My first task is to make interviews with all the ComTeam consultants and present them in a different view in the news on the ComTeam website. I will take part in seminars, will assist in some and I will help to create presentations.

Now some more personal questions: Which are the characteristics that describe you best?
My being authentic, being open towards other people, my steadfastness and reliability, seeing the necessity and being decisive in my actions. But the most important capacity is, to remind myself again and again that I do have these capacities and can act accordingly.

How do you spend your time when you are not working or studying?
I am interested in music, literature and art, I like to go to the opera, like to travel to cities and I am one of the organizers of a series of literary readings. And I like hiking.

What should have happened, so you would be able to say it was a good time at the end of your trainee months?
Mutual respect and a good communication with all the colleagues, this is important for me. But I also want to built up positive contacts to the ComTeam clients and be of use with my work. And it would be really nice if you all would remember me well.
I want to learn new things and develop myself. How my “hard- and soft skills” will have developed, this will show what I have learned and what my experiences have been.

It was Karin Pressa who interviewed Cornelius Speck